Bringing an Adoption Focus to Embed Network Rail’s New Intranet
Project Overview
Network Rail (NR) was migrating to a new intranet, extending access to mobile devices and enabling individual personalisation. The inclusion through mobile devices for the first time of many front line staff was critical in establishing line of sight within devolved route businesses, and personalisation enabled the intranet to act as a portal to the colleagues, information and tools NR people needed to do their jobs. Built on SharePoint Online, the intranet (MyConnect) also marked NR’s first step into the adoption of Office 365 and towards collaborative and more efficient ways of working this can enable. It was therefore imperative that users across the entirety of NR were quickly able to adopt and embed their use of the new intranet.
We partnered with NR to develop an adoption strategy based on four key pillars: targeted stakeholder engagement, creative, standout communications, onsite support for the whole organisation, and a robust, enthusiastic change champions network. Essentially we brought a holistic view of what it would take for employees to quickly adapt to the intranet – as well as setting them on the right path of a more collaborative (online) way of working advocated by Office 365.
Our Solution
- We created a 300+ strong champions network from across the organisation with a mix of route-based and office staff. We took the champions through the journey first so that they were ready to support their peers and lead in adoption.
- Targeted stakeholder engagement – we made sure the right messages went to the right people at the right time.
- We developed a strong and compelling visual identity, on brand, but standing out from other internal comms, which was applied to all materials to ensure messages were clear and digested by the desired audiences.
- We developed a national comms campaign using existing high level channels as well as local targeted campaigns which ran concurrently.
- We developed and delivered a roadshow complete with floor walkers to ensure people at key office and operational locations were equipped and enthused for adoption
- Highly visual and simple user guides were developed and deployed in hard and soft copy for four different interfaces – laptop, desktop, tablet and phone
The Differences We Made
- More than 50 locations were visited in five weeks – bringing us into direct contact with ~3,000 users. We went to offices and depots, including interacting with night shifts, demonstrating that users in all roles and locations mattered
- The user guides being made available for the different devices meant that all users, regardless of location or role, were able to log on and explore the new site using available and familiar devices.
- The champions network of over 300 people strong across the whole organisation, extended our reach beyond the locations visited, and prepared for and reinforced roadshow activity
- The experienced and committed floor walkers who complemented all roadshows were able proactively to troubleshoot ‘getting-started’ issues, give advice, and ensure NR people were able to switch over to the new intranet rapidly
- In early weeks after all 20,000+ users were switched over, page visits and dwell times increased relative to the old intranet; new route content was attracting a high share of visits; and mobile device use took off
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